What did Renaissance kids do – assuming anyone really had spare time “back then” -- while their parents traipsed about in doublet and hose, making witty quips and running through the tailor when a garment came back sewn far too small? And what did Renaissance parents do when they couldn’t stand to listen to their offspring utter, “O fain, I am bored!”

As in every age, the kids probably created their own wild adventures, complete with treasure maps, fantastical weaponry and enemies of Biblical proportions. And the parents, if they hadn’t yet apprenticed the children to master craftsmen, likely squired their brood to a local park and dropped them at a day-long gathering designed to entertain, educate and exhaust.

Thus may have been born the Renaissance Adventure camp, an idea that evidently hasn’t lost much of its momentum since the first geniuses thought it up, though there’s scant official documentation to suggest that today’s camps hold an absolute mirror to life during the 1500s. Except for the element of play.

And what would that element of play be without authentic period gear to turn a run-of-the-mill game into an outright thrill? Young, would-be swashbucklers need – what else? – a swasher to be taken seriously at Renaissance Camp.

To parents fearing the worst, take heart. Today’s wooden swasher comes wrapped in a generous layer of foam and can be had, custom-made, for a reasonable price. Or rented, for those unsure that their progeny will take to creative anachronisms for very long.

Either way, your child will want and need a weapon to excel in the main activity of many Renaissance adventure camps: The Quest, a group activity in which all members seek to slay the un-slayable, find the un-findable or rescue the un-rescueable.

Should one of your children be so fortunate as to celebrate a birthday, everyone is in luck. Little else can satisfy a group of pre- or early teens better than an adventure-themed party, with plenty of swashers, treasure maps and bounty to go around.

Just to stay on the safe side, leave the grog at home. You’ll no doubt need it later after listening to a charged retelling of the day’s doings.